The only thing stable about MS stuff is the huge amount of bugs and crashes you can expect.

Yet another shovelful of plain, hairbrained trolling.

You all are free to run Firefox, Opera of whatever you want. Could you at least troll around facts?

It amazes me how people think registry is evil without reading up on it.

How people think Linux can "handle" heavy gaming but nobody develops for it, in spite of the fact that every console, OS, platform and combo has good gaming except Linux. But it's not us, it's them.

The first step towards healing is ending denial.

Empirical evidence since 1995 strongly points to that conclusion.

Still, I must admit, I haven't seen a registry problem in about 10 years. It strangely coincides with the time I stopped using MS products for anything important. Maybe the two things are somehow related, but I couldn't tell, since correlation doesn't imply causation.


Seriously though, the idea behind it is all good intentions, it's just the implementation and subsequent usage by 3rd party applications that's gone bad.

Microsoft has upped their game in the recent years with W7, xbox 360, zune etc. I expect nothing but greatness from their phones.

On top of that I saw them test it on engadget and it looks really really well polished... that's more than what can be said about maemo.

As a long time user, power user and admin, I disagree by pointing the following:

* In 1995, did you use the "home" OS, like W95, 98, ME? Or the pro versions (Windows NT)? Because 9x is and was a joke, minimal pricing and meant for a home learning experience. Couldn't stay upright left alone. It matters, since that would be like using Tiny Linux to point out problems with Suse Enterprise.

* Registry is basically a large, upgraded config file and by nature has the same issues all settting systems do. Write trash in it, it will die. Has traded plain text (manual recovery) to indexed, structured storage (automatic recovery). However, it's been doubled by Last Known Good, tripled by Restore Points sine at least NT and 2002, respectively.

* Registry is always cached in RAM. Thus, vulnerable to memory errors and, coupled with the user's incessant need to reboot manually, saved onto disk bypassing LKG.

Finally, we have 90 percent os users. That means rougly 90 percent of uninstructed people, also, same for idiots.

Imagine how Linux stability would look if 80 percent of users would run as root and copy-pasting stuff they see in banners from Google searches.

I know the chances to ever get this straightened out are slim to none, but surely you can relate to this:

When comparing OSs, compare well managed versions on both sides. I don't compare Linux to Windows based on what Linux does FOR ME because I suck at it. And as non pros, most of you do at Windows.

I ask how thing should work, why can't you?

Juise-, this isn't aimed at you, it's a generic rant.

I don't give a damn if it is WinMo7 or MeeGo or Bada, IOS4 whatever!! As long they made a good device with lots of good applications to use then they are all the same.

So, you had trouble with Windows in 1995. I had trouble with Linux in 1997 and MacOS in 2001. I guess that means we have to put our trust in OS/2, cause clearly the evidence is overwhelming against the alternatives.

If you haven't used Windows as a main OS since 1995, you should be ashamed you even have an opinion on Windows a la 2010. That's carrying a lot of hatered.

Windows 7 is a damned good OS[1]. Windows is better in some ways, Linux is better in other ways[2]. Disagree with the first statement as much as you like, but anyone who disagrees on the last statement, is officially unable to make an objective evaluation on the subject what so ever.

It is impossible to say if Windows 7 Phone is good or not even based on the newest version of desktop Windows. It's hardly even related. I doubt it will be any good, because Microsoft has been trying too hard to the Iphone, so they will be competing on the wrong terms. But that sure as Murphy doesn't mean having a registry makes it bad.

So android has google maps and WP7 will have bing maps. Is there a general mapping system for meego devices that are not Nokia?

Respectfully noted.

Sadly, yes. Even if I hadn't, I was still the kid who was called in to fix things when PCs equipped with these "operating systems" had problems. Re-installing was sort of fun at first, but the joke gets old when repeated enough. And anyway, it's the kind of joke where someone chops my leg off with an axe and has a good laugh about it. Dismissing it as "oh theyre just being boys" is hardly an excuse.

Hatred is indeed what I felt first, however that's gone long since. What's left is distrust and disappointment.

And, I have tried going back to Windows every once in a while. (I admit though I haven't tried 7 yet). Every time I try, I feel sad and disappointed (not the least because I'm usually forced to pay for the license to get the hardware I want). XP was/is ok, but it's starting to get old already. Vista was/is ok, it's just too slow, no matter what I do with it. I got better things to do than to wait my HD led turn off.

Well I like telling how things should be in my opinion.

ndi, you actually nailed a lot of reasons why I think the registry, as it exists today, has gone bad. I'll add some more.

* Using registry to store preferences makes moving settings of some application from one PC to other a pain.

* Using registry to store preferences makes saving a version of settings of some application, and restoring them later, annoying.

* Using registry to store preferences gives an application enough rope to hang itself so properly, that advanced registry surgeon skills are necessary to get it running again.

As I said, it's not bad at idea level. For Win Phone 7, it might actually work as they have no legacy apps to support.

However, I think that currently on MS desktop OSs, it is just too complicated and too easily broken, for the amount of goodness it brings. Sadly, due to all the application legacy, many of the issues will be unfixable in the foreseeable future.

For some reason, I see nothing wrong with good old plain text config files, for application specific settings. They're robust, simple, and easily fixed when things go wrong. For OS settings, maybe some centralized DB is necessary, to allow the applications to access it in controlled manner.

But, IMHO the biggest fail with registry, is the fact that it's the system and user configurations mixed together. It's just too hard to tell things apart after they've taken the blender round together.

I shall end my thread de-railing efforts now, as I'm actually interested to see quality discussion on the topic at hand.

Such a lovely point you make. This is exactly what I was talking about - being unaware of options by not being a native. We have since learned to live off the land:

* There is an app in your start menu ever since XP or so that exports all settings to the network, an USB stick or disk. You can use that to import back everything after reinstall.

* Once you understand structure of registry, it's easy to do by hand. For example, I use Delphi which has a billion settings. Here's what I do:

a) Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER is a hive that is loaded from your profile at logon, while LOCAL_MACHINE is common to all and is loaded on boot. So, basically, common and user. Or, /urs and /home if you like.

All installed programs must use /Software by regulations. Then Company name, the program name, then ideally version or so. Thus,

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland

That means my settings from Borland. The hive includes Delphi, C Builder, etc. E.g. I have HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi for Borland Delphi.

Right click or choose File > Export. Type a name and path and a text-only version will be dumped at your location. To import, simply choose import or double-click the text file.

This isn't all. Text files have a defined syntax, so not only you can merge data, you can delete by adding a minus in front of the key. Keys and imported top to bottom, so it's possible to have a registry key be deleted then imported as is, as well as merged.

All data is text encoded and DBCS.

Basically, you can decompile any branch into a config file and back. Added bonus is registry have per-entity (value, key, etc) permissions.

But hey, what about admins you say? Well, regedit supports CLI, even if GUI app (they all do) so to export it in a script, do:

regedit.exe /e Delphi.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland

And presto. Setting dump. Import is easy. Add /s (silent) for a quick merger. Also, do mash them together, either use a text editor or concatenate via COPY (cp) command.

And yes, you can dump-import the whole software key forward and back. Also, there are tools to recover packed versions of the registry. Regedt32 (advanced version of regedit) as well as 3rd party tools like some I wrote myself has a Load Hive option, that mounts a file on disk onto a branch, much like you mount a CD drive in a folder (we have that too).

So you can get the old file from your old PC you recovered via tools and Load Hive to a key of your choosing. This becomes

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ImportedStuff\SOFTWARE\Borland

From there, export, replace, import, lather, rinse repeat.

Not difficult if you know the waters.

See above point. Want to test out WinZip settings?

regedit /e winzip1.0.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\WinZip

If you want to delete they key instead of merging, add another enpty key with a minus in front of it before:

REGEDIT 5.0

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\WinZip]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\WinZip]
name="Jim"

Simple.

There is nothing complex about registry once you know how to use it. In fact, API used to work with INI files are mapped so you can switch from INI to registry and back with only a path change (in case you saw an app that allows you to do both). So, it can be used as an INI, which is, basically, a config file. Your key in the registry IS a config file, except it allows structured storage of sorts.

That is, you can use SOFTWARE\Juise-\MyStuff\Address\IP and Address\Port instead of IPAddress= and IPPort=.

Save for that, it's the same. If you strangle yourself in the registry you probably would have in a config, ini or any other saving system.

What issues, to be exact? User or developer poor understanding of the system doesn't make it a bad system. It's simply the price we pay for bringing development to all.

Like I said, they're equivalent, one command line away. Plus, you are still free to use config files or ini files. Registry isn't mandatory. it's just fast, convenient, and PATH INDEPENDENT which is a good advantage to have when you don't have a common-root file system and can have several packages with the same name.

We don't have repos, I can have a million apps called "notepad" from several companies.

They're not. Again I say, familiarity is key. All system settings are stored in their respective paths, and not knowing which is confusing.

Much like me not knowing the difference between /var/log and /bin, which is way, way obvious to you. One makes you cringe at the thought of rm, the other you rm on a daily bases.

Same with the registry. Each component has its path, and, because apps and OS are integrated in so many points, you can't separate them. But, e.g., things that run as programs reside in software, like everyone else because they ARE apps.

Explorer in \Software\Microsoft\Explorer (as per specs), internet explorer the same, etc. No biggie.

As for "system" stuff, like services, TCP stack, etc, they are all in LOCAL_MACHINE in their respective keys.

It would be interesting. Not much content thus far, but, hey, you never know

Enough OT for me, as well.